Farm Cats and Health Problems

I have a cat with a health problem that I'd like to share with you, so that you may know about the symptoms should you ever see them. Marty is a small cat, the runt of a litter of farm cats. We picked him up and brought him to a loving home but quickly discovered, as is often the case with isolated populations of wild cats, he has a number of health issues. Unfortunately, he's had a moderate stroke.

Some signs that your cat has experienced this is that they'll be unable to stand up well. They almost look drunk. They'll take a few steps and fall over. They also have a tendency to turn in circles a lot. Like humans, they may or may not experience paralysis or sensory shit down, organ failure, etc with the stroke, depending on which part of the brain experienced oxygen deprivation and the severity.

Some good news, though! Marty has made a significant recovery! He's not the cat he used to be. His balance isn't quite the same. He also has a tendency to wander around things, always in the same counter clockwise direction, when he gets anxious. But much of his motor skills have been restored and he appears to lead a fairly normal life for an aging cat.

Has anyone else experienced a stroke with a cat? Or any other similar health problems with bringing in a feral cat?

 

The only cat from the outside world I've had as a pet is still alive and well, she hung around my parent's house from kitten-age and still does so. She hasn't experienced anything like this and, honestly, I think I would be terrified if I went to visit home and saw her acting like that! Strokes in cats are something I've never given much thought to. I'm glad your cat is doing better though!

 

This is one of the many reason I kinda look down on people living in farms and raising a lot cats. Those cats should be fixed! But instead of doing that they don't! They let them breed until the farm is half full feline residents.

 

I agree with you on that one. Farm cats seem to be way over bread and it leads to a lot of health problems. Whether on a farm or not you should always be a responsible pet owner and have you pet spayed or neutered.

 

Yeah, I have seen the same happen with dogs and oh boy was it much more worse to see!!! I wish people were more responsible Inbreeding is terrible for a cat or a dog, some people just don't care or think it's ok to do that. But if they saw the horrible things that can happen a few generations later...